(1730/1 - 1813), e. s. of Stephen Beckingham of Bourne Park, Kent; educ. Westminster and Trin. Oxf; L.Inn; Leipzig U. 1751; suc. fa. 1756; m. 1758 Dorothy Sawbridge.
1752 - 3 Rome
Beckingham appears to have spent a year in Rome, during which he commissioned and acquired a number of works of art. Batoni painted his portrait in 1752 (Clark/Bowron 164; Christie's, 22 Nov. 1985) and at Easter 1753 Beckingham was staying with 'Sig.Greenhill' in a house on the Strada della Croce.1 He commissioned drawings from Richard Wilson (completed in 1755) and a painting Time discovering Truth (completed in August 1757) from Thomas Jenkins, who also undertook to supply antiquities for his garden, provided that Beckingham would tell him 'for what particular use' he intended them: 'I mean, what part they are to ornament, either walks or buildings; and if to be exposed to the weather, or under cover, that I may, when occasion offers, choose you such things as are most proper for the purpose'; Wilson had also been in correspondence with Beckingham who passed on a commission from him to Jenkins.2
A list survives of works of art acquired by Beckingham in (or from) Italy (Beckingham list MSS). In addition to the pictures mentioned above, it includes four large landscapes by Richard Wilson (two have been identified in priv. colls., one dated 1754),3 six drawings of statues by Jacob Ennis (who arrived in Rome in c.1754); four busts in marble by Simon Vierpyl; six views of Rome in watercolours by J.B. Lallemand (Sotheby's, 21 Feb. 1962); a set of sulphurs by Christiano Dehn; a copy in miniature by Batoni of his portrait of Beckingham; 'Ld Dartmouth's Picture'; two drawings by Cl?risseau of ruins (Sotheby's 10 Apr. 1957) and 'Heads in the Vatican on Oil Paper' by Paolo Fidanza. Other lists show Beckingham also assembled an impressive antiquarian library.
1. AVR SA, S.Lorenzo in Lucina. 2. See HMC Dartmouth, 3:171. Constable, Wilson, 33 - 4. 3. See D. Solkin, Richard Wilson, exh. cat. Tate [1982], nos.72 - 3.